A long history and excellent food – Am Weinberg Restaurant, WINDHOEK

WHERE AND WHEN

Am Weinberg Restaurant is located on a hill at 13 Jan Jonker Road in Klein Windhoek, offering great panoramic views over the Eros Mountains and surrounding suburb. The restaurant offers free Wi-Fi access to its clients, is available for social and business functions, and does private catering. Lunch clients enjoy a 10% discount on all dishes. For dinner guests, smart casual dress is recommended to best enjoy the atmosphere.

Open seven days a week, even on public holidays, from 11:30, for lunch, dinner, sundowners and snacks. The kitchen closes at 21:30.

Tel 061 23 6050

Email welcome@amweinberg.com

BODY

Am Weinberg has that ‘once upon a time’ feel, asking you to sit back, study the menu as you would a good book, read about the interesting history of the building, and then take your time to choose a speciality. Your partner can keep himself busy by deciding on an aperitif from the selection of 99 wines, French champagne or sparkling wine.

Since the property started out as a winery (back in the 1900s), the name of the restaurant is very fitting. Today the vineyards are long gone, having been replaced with an establishment that serves some of the best dishes in Windhoek, or Africa, as a very impressed American couple reported in the guest book. “It’s excellent in all respects,” they summed up. A Dutch group praised it for being a fantastic closure to their Namibian holiday, while local clientele return on a regular basis.

Head chef Yannick Schweighardt took over the kitchen in February 2011, and since then the praises have been rolling in. With starters such as snails in puff pastry on a vegetable garlic sauce; mains including Norwegian salmon grilled with sauce Hollandaise, served with homemade pasta and sautéed vegetables; and delectable desserts such as parfait of mint and chopped chocolate, it’s not difficult to understand why. The cuisine has always been described as ‘international dishes with a Namibian influence’, but now there is an added flavour: experimentalism. The best part is that the restaurant caters for vegetarians and vegans, alternatives that are usually rather hard to come by in this country of meat-lovers.

Since taking on the job, Yannick has achieved third place in the Namibian Chef of the Year competition and has even been auctioned off at a church charity event. Melanie Schweighardt, front manager and Yannick’s wife, says people come to the restaurant not only for the good food, but also for the calming atmosphere. The outside Beach Bar adds to the ambience and menu, with cocktails, shooters and snack platters. Am Weinberg is owned by Dr Roland Lösch (he has a PhD in Aerodynamics), who is also owner of the popular Craft Café at the Craft Centre in Windhoek.

CHEF’S CHOICE

Namibia, being the meat-eaters’ paradise that it is: the springbok loin on chocolate-chilli sauce, served with Spätzle and roast apple, is a favourite of many. “It’s like good rains after a long drought; maybe even better,” as my eating partner put it. “Spicy, sweet and meaty, all at the same time.”

Text Marita van Rooyen

Photos Jeffrey Nakanuku

This article appeared in the Feb’12 edition of FLAMINGO Magazine.